Anne Jacob works as an Assistant
Professor at the KMEA Engineering College, Pookattupady, Ernakulam. When her
husband Jacob Mathew and she conceived their first baby, she started going for
Lamaze classes at the local Birth center. “Actually it was my mother in law who
put me on to it. She had a friend at her club in Kottayam, whose daughter had
taken the classes at the center. When I joined, I was really happy to
experience that everything was so down to earth, and I could ask any doubts
that I had and would get complete attention and explanations.” Anne.
When Anne conceived, she was sure
that she wanted a C-section. “All of the women on my mother’s side of the
family had only had Caesarean births. I thought it was the best way to handle a
birth – and I totally supported it. I was totally nervous about the pain of
childbirth. It was after I started Lamaze that I began to hear the other side
of the story – and started understanding that this was not the best procedure
for your body. I talked to my friends, who have had C-sections, and all of them
told me about how long it took for their body to recover and about other
complications and hassles they had to face. “
“On my husband’s side of the
family, they have all had normal deliveries. So when I started understanding
things more clearly, I started to change my mind. By the time I was at my fifth
Lamaze class, my fear about childbirth was almost gone. I understood how my
body works, what this experience would be like and how I could deal with it.”
As a routine part of the classes, the midwife discusses all the birth options
that are available to the mothers, and then they choose which they prefer. Anne
was really intrigued by the idea of a water birth and how it would help ease
the pain. “I checked all of the information available on the internet. By the
end of it, I was sure that this was the way for me to have the baby.”
The birth experience was quite
amazing and different from what Anne had anticipated. “My pregnancy progressed
past 40 weeks. But we were going for hospital checkups as well, so the last
scan we did showed that everything was normal, so we were quite cool about
everything.” At forty one weeks and a few days, Anne’s contractions began. “We
were in contact with the birth center midwife over the phone. We didn’t rush to
the center immediately or anything. It started very early in the morning, so my
husband and I walked for quite some time outside the house…the road was empty
because it was so early. When the day began and people started coming out, we
decided to go for a drive. We kept driving around, and once in a while I would
have a contraction. We were waiting for the labor to really be established.”
They arrived at the Birth center
in the afternoon. Anne waked around the bedroom, till she was dilated enough to
enter the warm waters of the pool. “The room was dim, and the music was so
lovely. I was so relaxed” says Anne. “ When I got into the water, it felt like
I was floating. There was none of the heaviness that I was feeling on the
ground. I was completely relaxed, almost dozing I think. In between, I would
feel a really intense contraction – but I can’t really call it pain. It was
just a wave of a ‘tight grip’ which would come and then go. After some time,
the baby crowned, and I touched her head. It was unbelievable… I was so
overcome with happiness! The baby was so calm – she wasn’t in discomfort, or
crying…when Jacob cut the cord, that was when she started crying.”
Baby Manna was born at 4.15 p.m.
Mother and baby were examined and pronounced totally fine. Anne went back home
at 7.00 p.m. that same evening. Anne
reminisces, “It was so wonderful – it was like the two midwives who supported
the birth were like my own family – my own sister, mother or best friend. They
were there to do everything I needed in support. They were my angels. The
actual experience was so much better than I had expected it to be!” Post Partum
visits from the midwives to Anne’s home
continued for 90 days.
Does Anne feel different since
the experience? “ Yeah, I think I was quieter before…now I am stronger when it
comes to making decisions…I somehow feel more alive now.” “I also used to be
afraid of water ever since I was a child. Since I chose to have a water birth
and actually experienced this, I have completely lost this fear of mine!”
Jacob, Anne’s husband is a
Structural Designer. He was present
throughout the birth. He says the biggest thing for him was that he actually
got to be part of an experience that he had only heard about till now. “I
didn’t have much tension, as Anne said – in my family all the births were
normal. So I didn’t have a fear of complications automatically attached to the
idea of a birth. And we had seen videos and done our own research about water
births. We knew that we were in good hands.” There are things that have really
been brought home by this experience though. “I have seen and experienced for
myself that in hospitals many times, the reasons for having C-sections is
overrated. Of course, there may be cases where it is required, but I think many
times, there is over intervention. Every pregnancy past the due date is not
dangerous, and having the cord around the baby’s neck is not a primary danger
either. Our baby had her cord around the neck, but it was easily slipped off
with some help when she came into the water. So there are many workable
solutions to many of these things without having direct intervention as the
first resort.”
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